Poor audio Realtek ALC861

Hi, I have a pb EasyNote MX37-T-003 with a Realtek ALC861, the volume when playing any audio is very low and when setting up my web cam on msn the microphone sound recogniser(the bar that raises to red when loudness is at it's max) will barely leave the floor. It runs vista and when using msn no sound is recieved at the connected computer. All volume settings are set to max and I have even used the record sound tool and playback was very quite. am a true novice at this so any help would be greatfully recieved.
Thanks all